


To Build a Home

by AwdurCeltaidd (GwraigCeltaidd)



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-05 07:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6696232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GwraigCeltaidd/pseuds/AwdurCeltaidd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Awards Evening at the University of Toronto Biological Sciences Department. Cosima attempts to deal with parent-teacher night, a hospital visit and a childcare emergency in time to see Delphine accept her research award, with a little help from Alison, Helena and Sarah.  Cophine family fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started publishing this on another site a couple of years ago, but I wasn't happy with it so I took it down. Then season 4 hit and I needed to convince myself in another universe Cosima and Delphine live happily ever after, so I've been editing it. I'm still not sure I like it and I haven't finished writing so I'm open to feedback and suggestions. My first OB fic so don't be too harsh! Feedback would be awesome.

University of Toronto, Biological Sciences Department  
5pm

“Now listen, don’t panic, alright? There’s no need to panic, everything’s going to be fine. Probably.”

“Okay, now I am panicking,” Delphine frowns. Absentmindedly she glances across her office to the clock hanging above the doorway. Two and a half hours, she calculates; she should really think about getting home soon. Lord knows it takes her forever to get ready for formal occasions at the best of times. 

“No, no, no, no, no; no reason to panic, remember?” her girlfriend reminds her, though her own voice is far from calm. She’s doing her best to sound calm, Delphine can tell that much, but beneath her façade there’s a clear element of panic. “It’s fine, I’ve totally got this. Well, Alison’s totally got this, actually… kinda… I think. But I’ll have it under control soon. So there’s really no need to panic, you just focus on your big moment and I’ll handle this.”

“Chérie, just tell me what’s…”

“Cherry’s dislocated her knee,” Cosima explains matter-of-factly. “Well, probs- Alison says the ER room’s carnage right now and it might be a while before she gets seen by a doctor, so…”

“Merde… what… what the hell happened?!”

“The barrier thing- you know the barrier thing, right? The thing they use to split the rink in half? Big carbon fibre thing? Anyway, the senior hockey coach didn’t set up the barrier thing properly, Alison reckons he didn’t lock it down, or whatever it is you’re meant to do to it. Alison insists she told him she’d do it but he wouldn’t let her touch it… but anyway, so the barrier thing wasn’t set up right and Cherry was skating right next to it and then one of the beginner hockey kids on the other side of the barrier thing got totally hyped going for a goal, couldn’t stop, slammed into it and brought it down on top of her…”

“Oh my god…”

“I know, right? Alison’s furious, she’s pushing for a rink-wide hockey practice ban on figure skating nights, she’s dubbed hockey ‘glorified assault on skates.’ Or something like that, I was kind of trying not to, you know, have a total heart attack at that point. Anyway, so Alison’s gone with Cherry in the ambulance…”

“Ambulance?!” Delphine panics. “It was bad enough that they had to call an ambulance? Shit, is she…”

“Babe, relax. Alison’s demanding a rink-wide hockey ban on her figure skating nights, remember? She’s been banging on about how much she hates giving up half the rink to the hockey players on Fridays all year, I bet she only called an ambulance for the dramatic factor. Well, and apparently blood and ice rinks is a totally gross combination, it probably looked way worse than it was. It’ll all be part of her evil plan to reclaim Fridays for Team elaborate spin things and ballet on ice, bet you anything. I think. But Cherry sounded fine on the phone, anyway, so...”

Delphine allows herself to relax at that, just a little. “You’ve spoken to her?”

“Uh huh, like, right before I called you. Well, only for like a minute, one of the paramedics had a go at Alison for using her phone in the ER room. But I think Cherry’s fine; she sounded a bit shocked, but hey, you would be shocked if a great heavy plastic barrier and an out-of-control high school kid on skates fell on top of you, right? Alison was saying it’s a high school beginner class; I mean, seriously, the kid must have been twice Cherry’s size…”

Delphine shudders. “Cosima?” she interrupts anxiously. “Cosima, not helping.”

“Sorry. Look, she’ll be fine. Honestly. Alison would have said if it was serious, right? I’m on the way over to the hospital now, Alison had to leave Oscar and Gemma with the other kids at the rink, I need to take Cherry off her hands ASAP so she can go back and get them. I’ll call you when I’m there, yeah? Don’t worry. It’ll be totally fine.”

“I’ll come over with you,” Delphine decides. “I’m almost finished anyway; I’ll head over as soon as I can, meet you at the hospital.”

“No, Delphine seriously, there’s no need,” Cosima insists, gentle but firm. “You’re not missing tonight. You’re practically guaranteed that award, remember, you totally can’t bail on your moment of glory. Seriously, I’ll handle this, I bet you it’s not even that bad. There’s no point both of us losing our Friday night in the ER if they’re just going to reset her knee and send her home.”

She has a point, and as much as Delphine doesn’t want to admit it, she does know it, deep down. “Okay,” she sighs reluctantly. “Okay, just… give Cherry a big hug from me?”

“You know I will. I’ll put her on the phone when I get to her, yeah? I promise.”

“Cosima? Maybe I shouldn’t go tonight after all. I mean, it just doesn’t feel right, you know? Not that Helena isn’t a good babysitter- you know, in her own way- but it seems a bit mean to dump Cherry with a babysitter at all when she’s been in the ER, especially when it’s Helena and she’s going to have to…”

“Oh shit, parent-teacher night!” Cosima groans. “Shit, I completely forgot! And I… oh crap… I knew I’d forgotten something… that’s where I was going when Alison called, I was going to pick up Violette..."

“You forgot about Violette?"

"Oh come on, only for like two minutes. Okay, maybe ten, but still. You’d momentarily forget to pick up our other daughter too if you had to listen to Alison’s hysterical rant about the logistical impossibility of under elevens sharing an ice rink with hulking great high school hockey players while Cherry quizzed the paramedics about what you can and can’t do on a dislocated knee in the background…”

“That bad?”

“Uh huh, Alison’s talking about suing if Cherry can’t compete in January and Cherry’s convinced she’s still going to Savannah’s birthday party at that climbing wall place tomorrow, so we’re going to break that one to her later… no pun intended. Oh my god I’m so good, that wasn’t even planned… never mind. Seriously though, I’d like, totally forgotten parent-teacher night,” Cosima sighs. “Alison said ER’s total carnage, how long do you think it’s going to take to get through total carnage?”

“Honest answer?” Delphine asks, sighing to herself as she realises where this is inevitably leading. “Hours. At best.”

“Cherry’s parent-teacher appointment’s at seven. Shit, how am I meant to be in three- no, four, can’t forget Violette again or we’ll give her some sort of complex… how the hell am I meant to be in four places at once?”  
She almost laughs at that, in spite of everything. “Chérie, of all people…”

“No that’s just it, tonight is the one night I really can’t be in four places at once. It’s Alison’s mom’s sixtieth, she and Donnie and the kids are taking her out to dinner or something, that’s why I seriously need to get there for Cherry ASAP. Then it’s grade 6’s parent-teacher night tonight too, Sarah will be at Kira’s, and leaving Helena with just Vi is a disaster waiting to happen. I mean, remember last time, how long it took to get all the food colouring out of the...”

“Okay, forget being in four places at once,” Delphine backtracks. She remembers only too well the aftermath of Helena’s last solo babysitting attempt minus Cherry, and most certainly is not about to risk a repeat of that any time soon. “Look, I’ll leave work now and go get Violette, you deal with Cherry, I’ll find someone to supervise Helena’s babysitting and whoever finishes first does parent-teacher hell. Deal?”

“No, but that’s not fair on you,” Cosima sighs. “We both know I’m going to be stuck in the ER with Cherry for hours; you’re going to miss accepting your department award…”

“Not necessarily, there’s no guarantee it’s mine, remember? It’s fine, I’ll do parent-teacher night. If we make that decision now we don’t even need a babysitter, Helena and Violette can’t cause too much havoc in half an hour…” She does know for definite she’s getting the University of Toronto award for Biological Research, was told as much by her and Cosima’s head of department that morning, but thankfully Cosima doesn’t know that. 

“No, that’s not fair,” Cosima insists. “That’s totally not on, you’re sacrificing your evening for the sake of our kids.”

“Isn’t that the whole point of parenting?”

“Fair point, they should put that in the small-print on the adoption papers. And the donor leaflets, we can’t really pin all this on Cherry when it’s Violette who’s Helena’s partner in crime. But look, that doesn’t matter right now, I’m on parent patrol tonight, remember? We agreed. You get Violette and persuade Felix to take her with him to his art class thing, then go celebrate your awesomeness and I’ll sort something for parent-teacher night, yeah? Worst case scenario we skip, what can they do?”

“Oh, I don’t know; send a threatening letter home like the school did to Sarah last year when she missed Kira’s?”

“True. Oh shit... Look, I’m on it, okay? I promise. You’re not missing your moment of glory for the sake of being told by Miss Richardson that Cherry’s too quiet in class and needs to put her hand up more, we get told the same goddamn thing every year. You’d think they’d like, cut her some slack really.”

“We don’t know I’ve…”

“Oh we do know you’ve won, don’t give me that. You’re going, I promise. If I can get rid of Cherry and deal with parent-teacher night in time I’ll even rush over there and video your acceptance speech like a really embarrassing girlfriend, yeah?”

She laughs at that. “Oh god, please don’t.”

“I can’t make any promises,” Cosima teases her. “Sure, I can promise I’ll do everything I can to sort out the kids so you can go, but I totally can’t guarantee I won’t turn up and do the embarrassing girlfriend thing. So we have a plan, right? You’re doing Violette, I’m doing Cherry, first one to deal with their assigned daughter wins fifteen minutes of hell on earth with Cherry’s teacher. Je t’aime.”

"Je t’aime, aussi.” Delphine waits until Cosima hangs up before she leans back in her office chair and sighs. 

Life, she concludes, was far, far easier to coordinate before children. 

*****  
“So let me get this straight. You and dreadlocks were so bloody desperate for a babysitter you resorted to Helena, which let’s face it, we all know is just Chez supervising Vi with an adult present to clear out your fridge and make the whole thing legal, and now Cherry’s incapacitated you’re begging Uncle Felix to drop everything for a night of bribing Violette to do her math homework and keeping Helena away from the food colouring?”

She shudders. “Don’t even mention the food colouring incident, I’m still having nightmares. Just until Cosima gets back from the hospital with Cherry, please? It’s Friday night, so no homework, and she’s been at gymnastics so she’ll be tired, you can put her to bed early and…”

Even over the weak cell connection she can hear Felix smirk. “Have you met Violette? You think two hours of throwing herself into a foam pit is going to tire her out enough that she’ll agree to an early bedtime? But it’s irrelevant, Delphine, because Uncle Felix has a prior commitment on Friday nights, you know this. I already lost last week’s class to babysitting Kira, I’m starting to think I’m the default emergency childcare in this family.”

“You could take them with you to your art class?” Delphine suggests hopefully. “Or Violette- just Violette, if that’s easier. I’ll bring her something to do, she can sit and wait. I can tell Helena her services aren’t required?”

“You’re prepared to break it to Helena you don’t trust her with your seven year old without your nine year old there to supervise? My god, you must be desperate. Look, if you and Cos are really sure you want Violette corrupted at my art class, drop her round by six, yeah? But no Helena. I’m not having her damaging my creative energies.”


	2. Chapter 2

Highway 401, Toronto  
5.20pm

“Cosima? Cosima, how far away are you?” There’s a strong element of annoyance in Alison’s tone that only causes Cosima to feel even guiltier about all this; she knows Alison has been dreading dinner with her mother tonight somewhat, knows that their relationship is frosty, unpredictable, at best. She also knows that Alison is a control freak, will have planned out her schedule for this evening with military precision, all leading up to dinner with her mother. 

There’s no way there was an extra couple of hours factored into that schedule for dealing with her niece in the emergency room. 

“Oh, don’t even ask,” Cosima winces, bracing herself. “I’m stuck, like, ten kilometres away, the traffic’s mental. I think there must have been an accident further down or something, I haven’t moved in ages… anyway, so I really don’t know when I’ll be able to get to you. I’m so sorry, honestly, I…”

Alison sighs. “You know what, Cosima?”

“Uh huh?” she holds her breath. 

“Don’t worry about it. I’m… not exactly looking forward to dinner with my mother,” Alison admits. “Maybe this is a blessing in disguise, I mean, it’s given me the perfect excuse to skip and have a quiet evening cleaning the house once you get here, having Helena really is like having a toddler again on the chaos scale. My mother only wants me there to criticise my life choices anyway.”

“Oh Alison, come on,” Cosima sighs. “You’ll totally enjoy it once you’re there. And I bet the kids are excited…”

“I could always send them anyway. Look, Cosima, don’t stress about it. I don’t mind, honestly. I’ll stay with Cherry until you can get here, it’s not a problem. I’m not exactly going to leave her on her own.”

“I know, I just… I feel like I’ve fucked up everyone’s plans,” Cosima sighs. Alison might be perfectly happy to use being stuck in the ER with Cherry as an excuse to get out of seeing her mother, but Delphine is another matter. Delphine won’t complain; Delphine will cover for her at Cherry’s parent-teacher night and insist that she doesn’t mind, that it’s fine, even though both of them know full well that she’s been looking forward to tonight, that really, she does mind. 

Cosima refuses to be the reason Delphine has to miss out on her moment of glory. Delphine is right, of course, in that neither of them know for definite that she’s won the Biological Sciences award for their department, but Cosima is reasonably certain. She knows the others who have been nominated, has worked with most of them at some point over the last year. 

She’s perfectly aware that she’s more than a little biased, but all the same, Cosima cannot believe her girlfriend hasn’t won that award hands down. So much so that she had it all planned out: she was going to get in and out of parent-teacher night as fast as humanly possible, quickly check in at home to be sure Helena hadn’t accidently burned the house down or lord only knows what, then dash over to the institute ball and hopefully make it in time for the awards. 

God, now she thinks about it, she realises it sounds horribly like one of Alison’s meticulously calculated schedules. 

“Oh, of course, it’s Delphine’s thing tonight, isn’t it?” Alison remembers. “So she’s tied down with Violette?”

“Oh, I wish, it’s way more complicated than that. It’s Cherry’s parent-teacher night tonight, we were going to have Helena babysit while I dealt with all the ‘Cherry needs to speak up more in class and lay off the Star Wars because it’s coming through in her creative writing’ shit; I mean, she’s nine, why try and push the kid into the mould the education system demands of her, right? We thought Helena couldn’t do too much damage in half an hour with Cherry there to supervise. Not without, we learnt that lesson the hard way. Or the kitchen counter did. But anyway, so now Delphine has Vi and Helena to worry about and at this rate she’s going to have to do parent-teacher hell, and I like, totes wouldn’t say anything but I don’t just want to do that solo because Delphine deserves to accept that award in person, I want to because Delphine’s kind of scared of Cherry’s teacher and I don’t want her caving and agreeing she needs to conform. Individuality and all that, right?”

“Okay, okay, don’t panic, alright? Welcome to the nightmare of trying to have a social life around kids. Why don’t you just abandon this, then? I’ll make sure Cherry’s okay, I can be you, if they need parental permission for anything. You could get back and take over from Delphine, she could go to her awards evening and…”

Cosima cuts her off. “Alison, that’s, like, really sweet of you to offer and everything, but I couldn’t ask you to do that.”  
“You’re not asking, I’m offering.”

“Wow, your mom’s really that bad?”

“Oh, come on, you’ve met her. Honestly, if me standing in for you here would help…”

Cosima sighs. “Honest answer? Not really. Sorry. I mean, I can’t exactly turn around now, and even if I could it’d make me feel like the world’s shittiest mother. How is she?”

“Cherry? Oh, she’s been really brave; Gemma would have been screaming the whole time. And she’s…” Alison lowers her voice. “She’s very interested in medicine.”

“Oh god, I know, sorry about that. We’ve tried to tell her that medicine’s got nothing on human biology but she just won’t be persuaded, and she has a really nasty habit of getting overexcited in inappropriate situations.”

“No, no, don’t get me wrong, she certainly seems to have a real passion for it. But we have had a discussion about why it might not be a good idea to ask every doctor who comes into the waiting area if she can watch a surgical procedure.”

“Hey, I asked nicely!” Cherry protests in the background- reasonably alert, Cosima is relieved to hear. “And I said any operation, I’m not picky. I’d obviously prefer something really cool like a surgical reconstruction or something but routine stuff is fine too. Can I have the phone?” she asks. “Can I speak to Mommy? Mommy?”

“Uh huh, I’m still here, honey. You okay?” 

“I think so.” She’s trying to be brave; Cosima can tell that much from the slight quiver to her daughter’s voice. “It kind of hurts.”

“I bet it does,” Cosima agrees sympathetically. “You’ve been really brave though, right? Auntie Alison said you’ve been brave.”

“I’m not sure I should be brave, though,” Cherry worries. “All the people who made loads of noise got to see the doctors ages ago. Like when we took you to the ER when you couldn’t breathe and Maman said to act like you were dying to get us through faster.”

“Yeah, well that was… look, being brave is fine, Cherry. Being brave is good, the doctors will be really impressed with you if you’re brave.”

“So impressed that they’ll let me watch an operation?”

“Umm… maybe,” Cosima lies. “Maybe they might think about it, if… if you’re really, really good, yeah? When you’re like, eighteen,” she mutters under her breath. 

“What was that last bit?”

“Oh, nothing, Chezzie, it was nothing.”

“Yes it was.”

“No it wasn’t. It was just the sat nav, you must have heard the sat nav. I’m trying to find another way round in case I ever get out of this… listen…” Cosima begins carefully. “Listen, I’m on my way over, but the traffic’s really, really bad. I’ll get there as soon as I can, okay? I promise. But I might be a while.”

“How long’s a while?” Cherry asks quietly. That gentle quiver is back in her tone again, and it just about tears Cosima’s heart in two. 

“I don’t know, sweetie, I don’t know. Sorry. As soon as I possibly can be there I will, I promise. But listen, Auntie Alison’s going to stay with you…”

“C-c-can’t…”

“Oh, Chezzie, don’t cry, honey, it’s OK. Come on, you’ve been so brave. Can’t what?”

“Can’t Maman come?”

Cosima sighs. “Well, she’d have to come the same way I am, she’d just get stuck too. She wouldn’t get there any sooner than I will. And anyway, she’s got to pick up your sister, and then she’s going to our work party tonight, remember? We wouldn’t want her to miss that.”

“No,” Cherry agrees quietly. 

There’s a faint sniff from the other end of the phone. 

“I’m going to be there really, really soon, okay?” Cosima promises. She feels as though she’s stabbing in the dark somewhat; this is the first time either of her daughters has ended up in the ER and she feels horribly guilty that she isn’t there. 

“And then once the doctors have made you better we can go home.”

“Can we make baking soda volcanoes tomorrow?”

She laughs, glancing at the time on the dashboard, sighing when she realises there isn’t a hope in hell of her making it to the hospital and back to Cherry’s school in time for parent-teacher night. “Whatever you want, honey. We’ll do something really, really awesome tomorrow, promise. And I think Maman’s told Auntie Helena she doesn’t need to worry about you guys tonight, so once we’ve got you checked out we’ll go and get Vi from Uncle Felix’s and then if you’re feeling okay we can swing past the university on the way home and see Maman get her award. Just for a few minutes, okay?”

“Is Maman going to be famous?”

“What? No, it’s not that kind of award, Chez. Not unless you’re like, seriously hyped about immunology, anyway. We’re totally going to have to find somewhere to put it at home where everyone can admire her brilliance though, right?”

There’s a momentary pause. “Bookcase in the lounge?” 

“Hey, that’s a really great idea, I was thinking that too. Look, I need to phone your Auntie Sarah and ask her a favour, but I’ll talk to you again in a bit, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good girl. If you need me again, or Maman, you just tell Auntie Alison and she’ll let you use her phone, yeah? I love you.”

“I love you too.”

She smiles at that. “I love you more.”

“No you don’t, I love you more.”

“Love you to the moon and back, I win. Can I speak to Auntie Alison before you hang up, please?”

“Uh huh. Love you to Venus and back- that’s further, right?”

“Oh alright, alright, you win, Queen of Physics. Give the phone back to Auntie Alison, then. Please?” 

There’s a slight pause before Alison picks up the phone. “Hey again. See, she’s alright,” she attempts to reassure her. “She’ll be fine once she’s been seen by someone and she’s home, I think she’s hungry more than anything.”

Cosima just sighs. “I should be there, Alison,” she murmurs softly, her voice laced with guilt. “I know you’re looking after her, I just…”

“You feel like it should be you,” Alison finishes for her. “I know, I understand. But honestly, Cosima, she’ll be fine, it’s only a dislocated knee.”

“If it was only a dislocated knee the paramedics would have just sorted it themselves, though,” Cosima worries. It’s been playing on her mind the whole way over to the hospital; she’s been trying her best to push it out, ignore it. “Why didn’t they just sort it in the ambulance if it’s only a dislocated knee?”

“Because it’s too swollen for them to be sure, they want to do an x-ray first. They’ll call her in soon, I’m sure. She’ll be fine.”

“They better.”

“They will, Cosima. They will. Look, if you want to stay on the phone to her, I won’t be offended…”

“Nuh uh. I need to call Sarah, I’ve got a plan.”

“Hmm?”

“Well, the problem is that Delphine and I can’t be in four places at once between the two of us, right?” Cosima smiles mischievously. “Did I mention that it’s also Kira’s parent-teacher night tonight? Right across the hallway.”

*****

“No, no, no, no, no, Cos, not happening,” Sarah Manning insists firmly. “No way. We swore we wouldn’t do this again after all the DYAD shit blew over, remember? And Cherry’s in Miss Richardson’s class, right? That woman is a total bitch, I am not sitting in a fucking room with that fucking control freak listening to her shite attempts to stamp individuality out of nine year olds…”

“Oh my god, thank you. Thank you, finally someone who agrees with me about the whole individuality thing. I mean, does it really matter that Cherry only does the writing exercises at the end of her spelling sheets when she feels like it if most weeks she gets them all right in the actual test anyway? Or uses purple pen in class, like, come on, at least if she forgets to write her name on it’s clear which one’s hers, right? That’s not rebellion, that’s individuality and common sense. But look, Sarah, I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t like a total emergency.” 

“Not my problem, Cos, there’s nothing you can offer me to get me back in a room with that woman. She threatened to report me to Social Services because I skipped fucking parent-teacher night for Christ’s sake…”

“I know, I know, how could I forget the shit storm Mrs S brought down on her? Which is why I really need you to cover for me, yeah? It’s okay for you, you and Kira never have to see her again- not as you, anyway. If Violette ends up in Miss Richardson’s class next year Delphine and I have got another year of her crap. Please? Come on, it’s only across the hallway, you could do it right after Kira’s…”

“The answer’s still no, Cosima.”

“Look, Sarah, I hate to ask, I really do, but it’s kind of an emergency. It’s not about me, OK, it’s about Delphine. She’s worked so hard for this award, Sarah, honestly, and I know you’ve never been her biggest fan, but it just seems so unfair that she should miss out on accepting it because Cherry had a freak accident and I couldn’t pick up the pieces in time to cover parent-teacher night.” She sighs. “You’d be doing us both a massive, massive favour and we’ll totally return it. Please?”

Sarah pauses, and for a horrible moment Cosima is convinced she’s going to say no. 

“Please tell me Cherry’s a mini geek monkey in class,” she says at last. “I’m so not signing up for getting into an argument with that arsehole of a teacher over Cherry’s schoolwork and her behaviour.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope it's okay! I've basically been watching the few clips of Cosima with Kira over and over to try and get a feel for what her parenting style might be like. Thank you for so much positive feedback, I started writing this to try and get around my hatred of dialog, so I'm glad it's okay! I do have a couple of less dialog-heavy chapters planned for later on though. Any thoughts on this would be awesome, equally if you have any requests, just let me know and I'll either see if I can slot them in or do them as a separate fic. I'm totally not over the season 3 finale and determined to keep believing this is where Cosima and Delphine are in a few years' time.


	3. Chapter 3

Westside Gymnastics Center, Toronto  
5.20pm

“Violette,” Delphine Cormier tells her younger daughter firmly. “Violette Jennifer, I’m not going to tell you again.” 

“Five more minutes?” Violette pleads, dropping down into a seat drop on the trampoline and flipping over onto her back, before making it back onto her feet again and spinning in a circle, clearly not listening. “Please, Maman?”

“We already went through that,” Delphine sighs, fighting to keep her irritancy from her tone. It’s not Violette’s fault, she reminds herself; the stressful nightmare this evening has turned into isn’t down to Violette. Admittedly, Violette would make her life an awful lot easier if she would just come willingly, but then again she’s seven. Delphine is fairly confident that even a low-level functioning superego doesn’t kick in until at least nine. 

Violette, seemingly unfazed, goes in for a pike jump, lands briefly and then keeps on going, as though she’s realised that the moment she comes to a standstill her mother is going to drag her out if necessary. 

“You’re already late to pick me up,” she points out; she’s treading a thin line and she knows it, Delphine can hear it in her tone. “That’s why I was allowed to join in trampolining in the first place.”

“Exactly. Look, Violette, Uncle Felix is going to take you with him to his art class, we don’t want to make him late, right?” Delphine tells her, trying this from a different angle. 

“And today has been stressful enough…”

“Because of Chezzie?” 

“Oui, so…”

“Is Chezzie going to die?” Violette asks, suddenly serious. She almost brings herself to a standstill and then seemingly thinks better of it once again, settles for small movements, just brushing the tips of her toes against the trampoline. 

“What? No, of course not, she’s just hurt her knee, she’ll be fine. She and your mom might have to spend a long time at the hospital tonight, but she’ll be fine. But all the same, I would really, really like it if you could get off so we can go home now,” Delphine tells her firmly. She turns her back on her younger daughter, heads towards the door. “I’m going!” she calls, looking back over her shoulder. “Je vais sans tu, Violette!”

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!” Violette protests, a faint trace of panic in her protest. “Can I try a summersault first?” she asks hopefully, seemingly unaware that she’s pushing her luck well and truly. “Please?”

It’s another fifteen minutes before Delphine finally manages to get Violette into the car, having lost a good ten to chasing her daughter around the changing room area whilst Violette had pretended to have forgotten where she had left her backpack and attempted to sneak back into the foam pit behind the trampolines whilst her mother’s back was turned. Violette, Delphine has learnt by now, has no sense of urgency; she must have picked that up from Cosima. She excels at becoming distracted in a matter of seconds, has a concentration span that could rival Helena’s in the inadequate department when it comes to keeping to a schedule. 

For that reason, Delphine far prefers being on pick-up duty for her older daughter. Is it terrible to have a favourite? She wonders absentmindedly, sending a quick text to Cosima whilst Violette faffs about with her seat belt. No, it’s not, she decides; it’s not that she doesn’t love them both equally. 

It’s more a case of her and Cherry sharing a hatred for being late, to which Cosima and Violette are startlingly immune. 

And she is going to be late, of course; Delphine has already with reluctance come to terms with that. Even without Violette’s stubborn refusal to cooperate, her institute end of academic year party was doomed from the moment Cherry was knocked over in Alison’s figure skating class. By the time she’s disposed of Violette at Felix’s (and she’s promised to provide some sort of entertainment for Violette, Delphine reminds herself, lord only knows what she’s going to come up with on that front) convinced Cosima she doesn’t mind covering for parent-teacher night, covers her disappointment, she’s going to be running hideously late for this evening. 

She could get ready beforehand, she supposes, but that would mean turning up to parent-teacher night in corporate work event attire, and Delphine is reasonably certain she would be far too self-conscious were she to opt for that strategy, despite it being the obvious solution time-wise. 

Delphine hates parent-teacher night at the best of times. It’s bad enough when she has Cosima with her to hide behind, but alone… she doesn’t think she can imagine anything worse. Parent-teacher night is effectively an opportunity for her daughters’ teachers to indirectly criticise her parenting; that’s the way Delphine sees it, at least. 

“Maman?” Violette interrupts her thoughts. “Maman, can I start trampolining classes? Like, properly?”

“What? Oh, I don’t know, Vi, when do you think you’re going to fit that in?”

“Now?” Violette suggests innocently. “I could start staying for trampolining after gymnastics on Fridays every week?”

“No way. You’d be exhausted, for a start.”

“No I wouldn’t,” Violette protests. She has a point, Delphine reasons; even after her usual gym session and half an hour of jumping around on a trampoline, Violette is showing no signs of fatigue. “And it would mean you could pick me up later.”

“Look, we can talk about this later, okay? But you’ll have to persuade your Mom too. Now listen, we’re going home to get you something to do at Uncle Felix’s art class, but we’re just going to grab something and head out again as quickly as possible, we’re not staying. I need to get you over to Uncle Felix’s by six or you’re coming with me to Cherry’s parent-teacher night.”

“I’m hungry.” 

“We’ll get you something on the way to Uncle Felix’s, okay? And your Auntie Helena… we need to tell your Auntie Helena what’s happened so she won’t be wondering why you and Cherry aren’t coming. We might have to take her a peace offering.”

“Mommy made chocolate brownies last night,” Violette points out. “Chocolate brownies for dinner? And to say sorry to Auntie Helena for going to Uncle Felix’s instead.” She frowns. “Why am I going to Uncle Felix’s instead?” 

“You know why,” Delphine mutters under her breath. “Proper food, you can take cake to Uncle Felix’s if you promise to sit quietly during his art class and we give the rest to Auntie Helena. Deal?”

Violette nods. “Okay. But only if you persuade Mommy to let me start trampolining for real.”

*****  
Cosima’s heart sinks a little when Alison’s number appears on her dashboard.   
“Dude, look, I’m sorry, I’m still like, ages away. Seriously, someone must have like, flipped off the highway or something, it’d be quicker to just get out and run at this point.”  
“What? No, no, no, no you’re not doing that, Cosima,” Alison panics. “The lung specialist said light cardio only, remember? Running what, 10k, isn’t light cardio, that’s a fast-track to joining Cherry in the ER queue. I told you, it’s fine, I really don’t care if I miss dinner with my mother. In fact, you can make it up to me if I don’t end up missing dinner with my mother. I’ll handle things until you get here, it’s no big deal. Honestly. I wasn’t calling because I need to leave, I was calling to put Cherry on the phone to you.”  
“Oh, okay.” She’s not quite sure what to make of that, filled with momentary panic as the possibilities race through her mind. “Is she…?”

“Mommy? Mommy, Auntie Alison said the doctors might ask what my blood type is. Kazakh-Russian-Moldovan, right?” 

“What?! Hang on, Auntie Alison never said you’d lost… okay, forget that, I’m going to ask Auntie Alison about that in a second. No, Cherry, that’s your ethnicity; your blood type is like, totally different. Thank god, really, otherwise you’d be completely screwed.”

“Why would my blood type be different?” 

“Because blood type has nothing to do with ethnicity. Well, not exactly, certain blood types are more common in people of certain ethnicities. Look, it’s quite complicated and we haven’t really got time right now… what I mean is that ethnicity’s where you come from, blood type is… look, I’ll explain it to you later. Maman can explain it to you later, this is more her area of expertise. You’re B negative, okay, just tell Auntie Alison you’re B negative. God, those doctors are going to love you,” Cosima groans under her breath. “I’m confused though, I didn’t think you’d lost that much blood. When Auntie Alison said something out of a horror movie I kind of thought that was the ice rink making it look like when your Maman’s evil psycho boss’s brains kind of…”

“Oh, I think Auntie Alison said not to tell you that. So you wouldn’t worry.” She can hear Alison in the background now, fussing, wrestling Cherry for the phone, judging by the muffled sounds coming from the other end. “The hockey guy’s skate blade kind of sliced my leg open.”

“Oh my…”

“Not badly!” Alison covers in the background. “Cherry’s fine, I promise. Right, Cherry? I don’t think she’s lost too much blood or they would have taken her in to see someone by now…”

“You think?!”

“Okay, bad wording. She’s fine, Cosima, I promise. Honestly. She can move it, can’t you Cherry? Your leg, can you move your leg?”

“No, my knee hurts.”

“Cherry?” Cosima interrupts. “Cherry, listen, if your leg starts to feel funny, like, tingly, like it’s not there anymore, you give the ER people hell until they let you through, you promise? Tell them your moms know their boss and we’ll sue them for millions. Or something like that. We must have met someone at the ER department through work at some point. Probs. Throw some science geek stuff at them if it gets really bad, yeah? That usually works. The guys on the desk won’t be real scientists, they won’t know the difference. Trust me. And if anything starts to really, really hurt, like, can’t take it anymore hurt, then tell them you only want the good stuff. They’ll know what you mean.”

“Cosima, are you…?”

“Am I what? No idea what you’re talking about, Alison,” Cosima interrupts, feigning innocence. “But look, Cherry, seriously, if it gets bad you tell them. Okay? And maybe lay off the asking them complicated medical stuff in the waiting area, I think you’re probably convincing them there’s nothing wrong with you. But I’ll be there soon, I promise. And then we’ll go get Violette and gate-crash Maman’s party, yeah? I’m counting on you guys to take some crazy embarrassing photos.”

“Of Maman?”

“Uh huh, we need new fridge collage material, right? Your Maman’s too photogenic. Although if you could manage a couple of our bosses we could totally work with that too.   
Awesome, can you give the phone back to Auntie Alison now? Alison,” she hisses. “Alison you never told me she’d lost shitloads of blood…”

“Hey, hey, calm down, okay? She hasn’t, Cosima, she’s fine, the paramedics just asked me in the ambulance and I panicked. It’ll be in her medical records anyway, right? I… well I told them I was you, didn’t I, I thought it’d be easier, and then they were asking me her blood type, is she allergic to anything…”

“Allergies? Dude, don’t go there. Nothing that we know of, but Delphine and I gave up harassing the Moldovan authorities for the other half of her medical records like two years ago, so, you know, she’s kind of unpredictable. Sarah said Mrs S tried to pull some strings at one point but that ended badly so after that we just kind of decided the Neos have nothing on the ex-USSR and we could live without the other half Cherry’s medical notes… is she good to wait like, half an hour? I should be there in half an hour, stall them, I’ll take over and then if she comes out in hives or something it’s on me, yeah? Delphine would forgive me eventually, it’s practically a parental rite of passage to low-key screw up your kid’s life at least once, right? Look, I’m so sorry about this, Alison, I’ll totally make it up to you. Even if you end up missing your mom’s thing anyway, I’ll totally make it up to you…” She trails off. “Delphine’s calling me, I’ll see you soon.” 

She diverts the call with her free hand, sighs. “Hey. Well, the good news is Sarah’s filling in for us at parent-teacher night, so I’ll pick up Vi from wherever she’s hanging out once they’re done with Cherry in the ER and you’re totally free to enjoy this evening. The bad news is I’m still trying to get over there, but Alison doesn’t exactly seem heartbroken at the thought of missing her mom’s party, so, you know, no point feeling guilty over that, right? And I think she’s so totally freaked out that Cherry’s knee got sliced open on her watch that she thinks it’s all medically like ten times worse than it actually is, there’s probably some fifty page long accident form she’s going to have to fill in or something. Anyway, update on operation Violette?” 

“Mommy, it’s me, Maman’s driving. Shall I put you on speaker?”

“Oh, sure honey, that would be awesome. So are you guys en route to Uncle Felix’s?”

“Uh huh. Auntie Helena and I are going to hang out with Uncle Felix because when we told Auntie Helena I was going to go to his art class instead she got upset. But it’s okay now, we have cake and we’re going to make Cherry a get well soon card at Uncle Felix’s art class.” 

“Hello sestra Cosima. Thank you for brownies.” 

“Hey, you’re welcome Helena. Does…” she pauses for a moment, unsure how to word her next question without causing her sister offence. “Does Felix know he’s expecting both of you?”

“No, Delphine says it will be nice surprise for brother-sestra.”

“Oh, she does, does she? Great, well, as long as she’s prepared to owe Felix for life,” Cosima mutters. 

“Sestra Cosima, can I slit hockey player’s throat?”

Cosima frowns. “Might have to give me more info than that, dude.”

“The hockey player who knocked Cherry over,” Delphine explains wearily. “She wants… revenge.”

“Oh. Look Helena, that’s… umm, really sweet of you to like, want to protect Cherry. I guess. But it’s not a great idea.”

“We could bury body in…”

“No. No we couldn’t, Helena, it was a total accident. We might get back to you when Chez and Vi start dating but right now, I think we’ll let the hockey guy off, yeah? I must have wiped out like fifty little kids learning to surf in high school, we’ve all done it.”

“Yes, this is what Delphine says. Except about surfing, she did not say that.”

“Awesome, you listen to Delphine, then. Delphine gives great advice. Listen, I’m going to leave you guys to go get food and sweet-talk Felix. You’re going to be good for Uncle Felix, Vi, you promise?”

“I will be good for brother-sestra also, sestra Cosima.”

“Great… great. Helena, Vi, and a shit load of oil paint,” Cosima sighs to herself once the call is ended. “What could go wrong?”


End file.
